Happy Winter-Een-Mas everyone!

[Flame of Anor]

For all you readers of Ctrl+Alt+Del (and perhaps those to whom the holiday might have osmoted) I wish you happy gaming!

P.S. I don't know if this belongs here, in Webcomics, in Gaming (other), or even in SMBG, but I think here.

[Fredthefighter]

May the gods of gaming bless your controller to forever pull off super-combos, even when you're just button bashing.

[LurkerInPlayground]

I must warn you that I rank among the number of people who would take this as a personal insult.

The reasons manifest being:
- I do not admire Tim Buckley.
- I think of him as a hack and a pretty bad person.
- By extension, I view Winter-Een-Mas as a piece of self-serving hackery.

For the sake of avoiding controversy, I will assume that you didn't realize these particular implications.

[DraPrime]

Ah yes, Winter-een-mas. The plague upon the internet.

[Flame of Anor]

I'm not sure how WEMas is self-serving...he's not commercializing it, except for a couple of t-shirts. And if by "hack" you mean you don't think Ctrl+Alt+Del is any good, no one's forcing you to read the thread. If you don't appreciate it, leave! This thread is in the true spirit of WEMas: jollity, companionship, and gaming. I don't want any controversy here, and if I get it, I'll ask a mod to lock the thread.

[Da Beast]

I'm not sure how WEMas is self-serving...he's not commercializing it, except for a couple of t-shirts.

Isn't that the story line he used to turn his self-insert fantasy persona into the king of all gamers?

[bluewind95]

I dunno. I don't red that comic, and what I've seen of it is mildly funny. But it's a gamer holiday, so I'm okay with it. Come up with more. I'll celebrate them too. :smalltongue:

[BRC]

Isn't that the story line he used to turn his self-insert fantasy persona into the king of all gamers?
Really, more like the pope of all gamers, but thats neither here nor there. And yes, but plenty of webcomics do the Self-insert ego trip thing, so I won't hold it against Buckly

[Da Beast]

I'd say that declaring yourself pope of all gamers is taking the self-insert fantasy thing a little beyond what's typical. However, this is off topic and I am open minded enough to consider the possibility that Buckley has created at least one thing of value during all the years he's been writing. So, in the spirit of "Winter-Een-Mas," how does one celebrate this holiday? If it involves playing Smash Brothers until you flunk out of school, then I'm off to a pretty good start :smallbiggrin:

[Illiterate Scribe]

Must we have a worldwide minute's B^U?

[Haruki-kun]

I don't even read the comic and I still know about Winter-een-mas! :smalltongue:

Happy Holiday!

[Em Blackleaf]

I had completely forgotten what Winter-Een-Mas was until I opened this thread!

I guess I've got play more video games, in celebration. Or cut back on them. Either one would leave me at an unhealthy level of gaming. :smalltongue:

[Ganurath]

I had completely forgotten what Winter-Een-Mas was until I opened this thread!Must resist comparing Em to Buckley in having forgotten...

As an interesting coincidence, I've been playing the original Age of Empires campaigns. Nostalgia is Geek for Ambrosia, as they say.

[Dallas-Dakota]

I had completely forgotten what Winter-Een-Mas was until I opened this thread!

I guess I've got play more video games, in celebration. Or cut back on them. Either one would leave me at an unhealthy level of gaming. :smalltongue:
Ditto me this.

@Gan : Ah good old AoE......Good old times....


*go's off to play Europa Universalis 2*

[Alleine]

Huh, before opening this I thought it had to do with homestarrunner. Didn't they have something similar?

Yeah, I should probably do some more gaming, I've been getting out of the habit, what with my lack of smoothly running/new games to play.

[ghost_warlock]

In honor of Winter-Een-Mas, I will play Marvel Ultimate Alliance on my desktop tomorrow. Which I was probably going to do anyway, but what the heck. :smalltongue:

Deadpool + Ironman + Storm + Thing FTW!

[Ninja Chocobo]

Huh, before opening this I thought it had to do with homestarrunner. Didn't they have something similar?

Decemberween, but B^Uckley hasn't watched Homestar Runner in over two years.

[Archonic Energy]

merry WEmas ev1

i'm off to play Fallout & see if i can get the DLC to work...

[Surfing HalfOrc]

I must warn you that I rank among the number of people who would take this as a personal insult.

The reasons manifest being:
- I do not admire Tim Buckley.
- I think of him as a hack and a pretty bad person.
- By extension, I view Winter-Een-Mas as a piece of self-serving hackery.

For the sake of avoiding controversy, I will assume that you didn't realize these particular implications.

I have a question... Are the anti-Buckley posters paid to spew their hate and venom over Tim Buckley?

Seriously, I've read the strip, and it's usually so-so funny, while sometimes downright hilarious. But there seems to be a sub-culture of Tim Buckley haterz out on the web who abolutly cannot pass up an opportunity to slam on him.

Maybe the meme of:

1. Read Tim Buckley's Comics
2. Spew Hatred against Tim Buckley
3. ????
4. PROFIT!

is really true? :smallannoyed:

Personally, I never really cared for the Winter-Een-Mas arcs, and was moderately pleased to see that he decided to skip it this year. Although others seem willing to celebrate it in the good spirit it was originally intended in.

[Lord Seth]

I didn't mind Winter-Een-Mas so much until Buckley used it as an excuse to throw in some religious strawmen so he could (poorly) attack organized religion.

[Flame of Anor]

So, in the spirit of "Winter-Een-Mas," how does one celebrate this holiday? If it involves playing Smash Brothers until you flunk out of school, then I'm off to a pretty good start :smallbiggrin:

Basically, you play video games. Playing with friends is a bonus. I would imagine that Ethan would think that play-til-you-flunk is a good idea, but I would hesitate to recommend that much gaming. :smallwink:


As an interesting coincidence, I've been playing the original Age of Empires campaigns. Nostalgia is Geek for Ambrosia, as they say.

Yeah, original AoE is cool. The one thing I hated was how, in the earlier advancement levels, you couldn't have healers or gates. Hello! There have been healers for the length of recorded history, and there have been gates for as long as there have been walls. I usually ended up 1) building up a force of unwounded guys while sending the wounded ones out to die on defence and 2) building an unbroken wall, then demolishing one section to let guys through, then rebuilding.


I have a question... Are the anti-Buckley posters paid to spew their hate and venom over Tim Buckley?

Seriously, I've read the strip, and it's usually so-so funny, while sometimes downright hilarious. But there seems to be a sub-culture of Tim Buckley haterz out on the web who absolutely cannot pass up an opportunity to slam on him.

Maybe the meme of:

1. Read Tim Buckley's Comics
2. Spew Hatred against Tim Buckley
3. ????
4. PROFIT!

is really true? :smallannoyed:

Personally, I never really cared for the Winter-Een-Mas arcs, and was moderately pleased to see that he decided to skip it this year. Although others seem willing to celebrate it in the good spirit it was originally intended in.

Thank you, Surfing. I really don't understand the Buckley-hate either. It's true that CAD has its weak spots, and, as Lord Seth pointed out, some cheap shots at real religion, but mostly it's pretty funny, and not deserving of contempt.

And one more thing...I would suggest that you remove the first sentence of your post before someone takes offense.

[LurkerInPlayground]

Well, let me enlighten you.

Buckley's character is pretty questionable. There are rumors of him basically throwing hissy fits when things don't fit into this narcissistic worldview. Some of these rumors can get pretty nasty. The problem is that I find them fairly believable. He's practically a pariah in the "webcomics community" and he seems to spawn a lot of bitter ex-fans.

He is also one the many generic webcomics that essentially apes Penny Arcade without really emulating any of what makes Penny Arcade any good. So much so in fact that Mike and Jerry decided to satirize him for ripping them off in the form of their Franzibald character.

If Penny Arcade makes a gaming charity (Child's Play), so then must Tim Buckley! All the while, people silently grumble about how self-serving he is by trying to compete for attention. The worst thing about Tim isn't that he's unoriginal, he actually thinks he's a genius for it.

His art sucks. His art never improves. And so on and so forth. Oh yeah, that and his poorly-conceived attacks on organized religion and his painfully calculated "random" antics of his self-insert Mary Sue.

If Penny Arcade tells a joke, they imply it through exaggerated cartooniness or they try to imply it through the writing. Buckley not only tells the joke, he has to explain it to you with a wall of text. And he fails to even tell a joke no matter how many panels he has to work with. Succinct he is not.

Penny Arcade alter-egos very rarely triumph. They're often merely mouthpieces for nerd rage, self-recrimination or parody. Tim Buckley's self-insert is an incomprehensible child genius who is loveable, no matter how stupid or erratically he acts.

Tim Buckley tells you about the popular trends in gaming, all of which you can follow on IGN, Gamespy or whatever. Penny Arcade has an op-ed piece with key pieces of insight into the actual gaming industry.

Insofar as I care about "gaming news" I'm more likely to hit up the Penny Arcade forum or blog posts. The Penny Arcade forumites are vulgar, but don't worship Jerry or Mike. Tim's forumites are sycophants.

Tim doesn't merely attract hate merely for being bad. He attracts it because he's also a terrible person to boot. He's completely and utterly made of fail. And people rage at him for being the success that he is, in spite of lacking every merit or talent.

[Rutskarn]

When I saw this thread, I didn't really parse it properly. My first thought was something like:

Decemberween? But it's January!

[Flame of Anor]

[tim buckley is bad]

Notice again the title of the thread. Happy WEMas. This thread clearly does not make you happy. I, and those of my mind, would appreciate it--and I'm sure you would not miss out on anything fun for you--if you just left the thread. No offense, but the differences just seem irreconcilable to me.

[Rutskarn]

By the way, Lurker:

Okay, I understand you don't like it. I dislike Ctrl-Alt-Del as well. But still: how the heck is this a "personal insult"?

Innocent Bystander: Boy, I'm so excited about the Twilight movie!

Rutskarn: I should warn you, I don't like that franchise for several reasons. I consider your statement a personal insult.

[Boo]

Hell, I don't like comics in general*. I still wish you all a happy WEMas.

* - general being very stupid reasons that I will never tell anyone.

[LurkerInPlayground]

By the way, Lurker:

Okay, I understand you don't like it. I dislike Ctrl-Alt-Del as well. But still: how the heck is this a "personal insult"?
*sigh* If we must go there -- because I choose to take offense to it.

It's really more of a warning as to why people would take offense. Offering up a trademark piece of "randomness is FUNNAY!" of the Buckley style of humor, which also just so happens to be a monument to his ego, isn't exactly endearing. It has the exact opposite effect -- it cheapens me and you.

You just say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays." No. You had to make a forced joke about "gamer unity" that was stale before Tim Buckley even bothered to tell it. I didn't need an excuse to party and play games on Christmas before Tim Buckley needed to officially sanction it, thank you very much.

You may just as well tell me to go **** myself.

[Coidzor]

Who is this Tim Buckley? And What does he have to do with Penny Arcade again?

Or was it Control Alt Delete we were talking about?

I'm confused.

We need a reason to play video games now?

[Rutskarn]

It's really more of a warning as to why people would take offense. Offering up a piece of "randomness is OMGZOR!" trademark of Tim's style of humor, which also happens to be a monument to his ego, isn't exactly endearing. It has the exact opposite effect.

While I respect your concern, I put it to you that most people will not be offended by one thread that contains humor that might not be clever or original.

This thread is clearly labeled as, "Happy Winter-Een Mas". People entering this thread would not, for example, expect a level-headed discussion regarding the current price of fish eyeballs. They are free to ignore or participate in this thread as they wish. The contents of this thread, even if some may find them boring or painfully unfunny, do no harm to any but the most sensitive of sensibilities. Bottom line, I'm not sure I really see any grounds for the backlash you seem to fear.

To be honest, what might seem offensive would be going into a thread dedicated to a celebration of some sort and bashing the grounds upon which the celebration is taking place.


Who is this Tim Buckley? And What does he have to do with Penny Arcade again?

Or was it Control Alt Delete we were talking about?

I'm confused.

We need a reason to play video games now?

To the first point: Tim Buckley writes Ctrl-Alt-Del, yes. His work is often compared to Penny Arcade, the primary difference being that the latter is funny. (ba-dum-PISH) Sorry, just a little bit of personal opinion creeping in there.

[LurkerInPlayground]

While I respect your concern, I put it to you that most people will not be offended by one thread that contains humor that might not be clever or original.

This thread is clearly labeled as, "Happy Winter-Een Mas". People entering this thread would not, for example, expect a level-headed discussion regarding the current price of fish eyeballs. They are free to ignore or participate in this thread as they wish. The contents of this thread, even if some may find them boring or painfully unfunny, do no harm to any but the most sensitive of sensibilities. Bottom line, I'm not sure I really see any grounds for the backlash you seem to fear.

To be honest, what might seem offensive would be going into a thread dedicated to a celebration of some sort and bashing the grounds upon which the celebration is taking place.
Fine, I'll politely agree to disagree. Which is more or less what I'm doing the whole thread.

It's a bit infuriating that people don't know the context from which this "celebration" has sprung. I'm not here to chime along with everybody else. I'm here specifically to disagree with it. You can take it or leave it.

Either way, I've already adequately impressed my point.

[Coidzor]

Have fun and stay cool despite the icy weather, eh?

I can dig it then.

[Raiser Blade]

If you bring up B^Uckley at any time, any place on the internet you're goin to get this sort of backlash.

[Flame of Anor]

Innocent Bystander: Boy, I'm so excited about the Twilight movie!

Rutskarn: I should warn you, I don't like that franchise for several reasons. I consider your statement a personal insult.

wat


Fine, I'll politely agree to disagree. Which is more or less what I'm doing the whole thread.

It's a bit infuriating that people don't know the context from which this "celebration" has sprung. I'm not here to chime along with everybody else. I'm here specifically to disagree with it. You can take it or leave it.

Either way, I've already adequately impressed my point.

It may have been your intent, but "politely" is certainly not the impression that I--and, I would guess, others--have been getting from your posts. Also, I don't get why this is infuriating. This thread is about the holiday. Period. This is NOT a discussion of Tim Buckley's character, art skills, originality, or method of eating asparagus! I am deadly serious here: THESE. THINGS. ARE. NOT. RELEVANT. TO. THIS. THREAD. I don't know why you're still posting here--it's not like you're saving innocent bystanders from being sucked into the evil of Tim Buckley. You're just getting yourself worked up and subjecting all of us to your off-topic venting, and I am really getting ticked off about it.

[Alleine]

Have fun and stay cool despite the icy weather, eh?

I can dig it then.

Don't you mean 'stay cool because of the icy weather'?

[Coidzor]

Don't you mean 'stay cool because of the icy weather'?

No. The icy weather will make you freeze to death as it cleaves the warmth from your bones and the love from your heart and all of your friends and family and lovers from your company.

The icy weather hates us all with an undying passion that burns cold and dark like Morgoth's Maw.

[AkazilliaDeNaro]

because every ones posts are extremy long and boring iand i dont have enough time to read them all i just want to know when does wemas start and end.

[Ninja Chocobo]

This thread is about the holiday. Period. This is NOT a discussion of Tim Buckley's character, art skills, originality, or method of eating asparagus! I am deadly serious here: THESE. THINGS. ARE. NOT. RELEVANT. TO. THIS. THREAD.

It sort of is. That's why Christmas threads get locked for Religious Discussion.

[Flame of Anor]

because every ones posts are extremy long and boring iand i dont have enough time to read them all i just want to know when does wemas start and end.

It's Jan 25-31.


It sort of is. That's why Christmas threads get locked for Religious Discussion.

I guess I see what you mean...maybe this thread will go the way of all the Christmas threads...:smallfrown: